Get Used to It by Evelyn Pyburn

"This is the new normal, get used to it.”
Remember those words?
I for one refused to get used to it, and so it seems did many others.
I was dismayed that we had leaders who even thought “getting used to it” was an acceptable plan of action.

It was a throwing down of the gauntlet, and we all came to understand what it meant. It was to give up.
It meant that we should get used to a lower standard of living. Higher taxes, low wages, no wage increases, wars on industry and no entrepreneurship.
“You didn’t build that.”
That was to be the new normal. Rather than aspiring to the best within us, achieving, creating, producing and being able to take care of ourselves, we were to accept a morose state of existence, demanding from others, dependent and groveling, sullen and angry when alms were not as promised. This is living?
The news of the day is heralding that Americans refused to get used to a lackluster economy, stagnation in new business starts, minimal economic growth, a reduction in competition and consolidation of corporations and financial institutions, resulting in declining incomes, joblessness, and greater welfare rolls. Economic news of the day affirms that for many Americans to be told to “get used to it” was an affront and perceived as a challenge.
That should be no surprise to anyone. Refusing to accept the status quo has been the hallmark of Americans since the country’s founding. The common every day hard working citizens of this country do not acquiesce. It’s been an attribute complained about at times by people in other countries and certainly baffling to those of lesser spirit.
Companies are dusting off expansion plans, bringing in capital and investment revenues, paying out bonuses and increasing wages. Entrepreneurs are emerging, encouraged by changes in the tax plan and renewed opportunities in the freedom to act. Freed from regulations and oppressive government the life blood is beginning to flow, once again through the economy of the nation and of every community in the country. And, surprise, surprise, even other countries are experiencing an awakening in their economies. It seems freedom is contagious.
The rapidness with which this is all happening is stunning to some people – but only to those who have never appreciated markets – who have no understanding of how swiftly and powerfully and justly the market responds to changes. It is a surprise only to those who have never trusted to allowing individual citizens the freedom to act.
It turns out, capitalism and its trickle down prosperity is far more rejuvenating than wealth redistribution. Who knew? Well, actually many people knew.
While it is common for people to attribute the turnaround (when they choose to admit it is happening) to President Trump, the fact is it is really the policies that the President is advocating and advancing. It is policies that are not new, just ignored. Trump deserves credit for insisting that after decades of being allowed to languish, they be reinstituted.
It is policies, practices and systems that work every time they are used – every time free markets are given reign, such is the outcome. The perplexing question is why are those policies ever curtailed? Why does this country or any country restrict the life blood of its economies that generate high standards of living for their citizens? Why do they choose policies that strangle and suffocate?
It’s not because they don’t know. They are far too expert at knowing what policies to put into place to strangle the production and wealth generation of the citizens, to be able to claim they don’t know. They know and they hate it. That is the scary part. What kind of person hates success, prosperity, achievement and happiness? And why, why are they ever our leaders?
Projecting what is to come in the next year isn’t hard. It is going to be an incredibly good year. Far better than the numbers project because the numbers do not contain the spirit of entrepreneurship or the character of Americans who enjoy independence.
The numbers and the projections, just as the changes in policies and the relinquishing of restraints, are hovered and fawned over by people who are only reluctantly letting go. The positive messages are put forward, hesitantly and nervously, by politicians and leaders who long ago lost faith and confidence in the American system and in Americans. Many of them are, after all, those who thought “getting use to it” was an acceptable alternative. So what they expect is far less than what is going to happen.
So for 2018, look out world, Americans have been unleashed.

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The Big Sky Business Journal is a locally owned bi-weekly news publication located in Billings, Montana. It was started by Dennis and Evelyn Pyburn in 1982, making it the first business publication in the state. It is the only independent business publication (not associated with daily newspapers) in the Montana.